【Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture】Special Tour Created for Travelers to Participate in the 200-Year-Old "Sanjo Festival Daimyo Gyoretsu." ~A New Initiative for Regional Cultural Heritage Through Traditional Rituals x Experiential Tourism Begins~
A special tour has been created and launched, allowing travelers to officially participate in the 200-year-old "Sanjo Festival Daimyo Gyoretsu" in Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture. LAMBDA・JAPAN Co., Ltd. and Arute are collaborating to promote regional cultural heritage and tourism.
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- 📰 Published: April 1, 2026 at 23:00
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LAMBDA・JAPAN Co., Ltd. (Location: Kamo City, Niigata Prefecture, Representative Director: Tatsumi Igarashi) has partnered with Arute (Location: Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture, Representative: Hiroshi Aiba) to create and launch a special participation tour for the traditional "Sanjo Festival Daimyo Gyoretsu" in Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture. Furthermore, with the aim of regional revitalization and local creation, this tour is also offered as a Furusato Nozei (hometown tax) return gift from Sanjo City.
LAMBDA・JAPAN operates "INORI," a tourism platform specializing in Shinto and faith experiences, based on the philosophy of "Bringing Japan into daily life." Under a Class 2 travel agency license, they consistently produce experiential content from planning and creation to implementation and guiding, in collaboration with shrines and tourism associations nationwide. Arute, based in Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture, coordinates "town walks" centered on culture, tradition, history, and industry, utilizing local resources, events, and people. By combining the strengths of both companies, this program was born to deliver local traditional Shinto rituals as experiential tourism.
This experiential program, where travelers can participate as official members of the procession rather than just "watching the festival," is an extremely rare endeavor nationwide. Through participation in traditional Shinto rituals, the aim is to create connections with Sanjo and increase the number of people who get to know and love Sanjo, leading to the creation of related and exchange populations.
■ What is the Sanjo Festival?
The Sanjo Festival is held annually on May 15th as the Spring Grand Festival of Sanjo City Hachimangu Shrine, featuring a Daimyo Gyoretsu (feudal lord's procession) of 100,000 koku status. This procession has been passed down for generations since Bunsei 5 (1822) and is currently designated as a Sanjo City Intangible Folk Cultural Property. The "Maikomi" ritual, performed when the procession returns to the shrine grounds, is said to ensure the healthy growth of participating children, with many parents and children joining every year.
(Maikomi: An act where parents carry young children on their shoulders and walk around the shrine grounds with Tengu, portable shrines, and drums before entering the main shrine.)
Sanjo Festival HP: https://sanjo-matsuri.com/
■ Background of Tour Creation: Creating a Connection with Sanjo through the Festival
In traditional Shinto rituals across Japan, festivals and rituals are symbols of deeply rooted local culture. However, opportunities to convey their charm in ways other than "watching" have been limited. The core of this initiative is to increase the number of people who get to know and love Sanjo by experiencing the Daimyo Gyoretsu as an official participant. This initiative of traveler participation in traditional events is rare even within Niigata Prefecture.
LAMBDA・JAPAN operates "INORI," a tourism platform specializing in Shinto and faith experiences, based on the philosophy of "Bringing Japan into daily life." Under a Class 2 travel agency license, they consistently produce experiential content from planning and creation to implementation and guiding, in collaboration with shrines and tourism associations nationwide. Arute, based in Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture, coordinates "town walks" centered on culture, tradition, history, and industry, utilizing local resources, events, and people. By combining the strengths of both companies, this program was born to deliver local traditional Shinto rituals as experiential tourism.
This experiential program, where travelers can participate as official members of the procession rather than just "watching the festival," is an extremely rare endeavor nationwide. Through participation in traditional Shinto rituals, the aim is to create connections with Sanjo and increase the number of people who get to know and love Sanjo, leading to the creation of related and exchange populations.
■ What is the Sanjo Festival?
The Sanjo Festival is held annually on May 15th as the Spring Grand Festival of Sanjo City Hachimangu Shrine, featuring a Daimyo Gyoretsu (feudal lord's procession) of 100,000 koku status. This procession has been passed down for generations since Bunsei 5 (1822) and is currently designated as a Sanjo City Intangible Folk Cultural Property. The "Maikomi" ritual, performed when the procession returns to the shrine grounds, is said to ensure the healthy growth of participating children, with many parents and children joining every year.
(Maikomi: An act where parents carry young children on their shoulders and walk around the shrine grounds with Tengu, portable shrines, and drums before entering the main shrine.)
Sanjo Festival HP: https://sanjo-matsuri.com/
■ Background of Tour Creation: Creating a Connection with Sanjo through the Festival
In traditional Shinto rituals across Japan, festivals and rituals are symbols of deeply rooted local culture. However, opportunities to convey their charm in ways other than "watching" have been limited. The core of this initiative is to increase the number of people who get to know and love Sanjo by experiencing the Daimyo Gyoretsu as an official participant. This initiative of traveler participation in traditional events is rare even within Niigata Prefecture.